Liam stepped through the gates, the relative isolation of spending two nights away from the city suddenly being replaced by the familiar scent and chatter of the city during the day. He made his way through the crowd; he’d never quite understood how much he disliked the sensation of being just one of many faces until now. He’d had a taste of being different when the guild worker was surprised by his progress speed. Being reminded that he was just another among many by the sheer number of people wasn’t a welcome feeling.
He pushed open the ornate doors of the guildhouse, the usual stench of sweat and alcohol replacing the mixed and somewhat confusing aroma of the perfumes and spices in the outside air. Honestly, this was a welcome change.
Slowly, he approached the desk, dumping out the rather impressive amount of cores they’d managed to gather. The worker at the desk was the same young lad from before; his eyes widened yet again. Liam could see the bewilderment in his eyes. The smile that crept upon his face was one of pure satisfaction. The feeling of being just one of many had been quickly replaced by the look on the young man’s face that told him what he did was something special.
“That’s a lot of cores… Give me a minute to have a proper look at how many of what you have brought, and I’ll give you the payment, alright?”
Liam nodded once.
“I’ve got time; take as long as you need.”
He didn’t wait for the lad to start, just started walking away from the counter to get something to eat. He’d eaten rations only for the past few meals, so the idea of eating proper food was very tempting. He sat down at a table. For once, the chatter and the general guild ambience wasn’t off-putting. For the first time, he felt like he actually belonged there.
He didn’t have to wait too long for his meal and ale to arrive. The food didn’t have to long for him to dive in either; he practically shoveled the food into his mouth. He wasn’t actually hungry, but tasting actual food had temporarily made him into a glutton. He treated his drink the same as he did his food; drinking it as if it were water in the middle of a desert.
He was done, though a quick glance at the counter made it apparent the guild employee there wasn’t done with sorting through the cores yet. He didn’t mind. He just ordered another drink, this time actually slowing down and savouring the taste. There was a feeling of slight guilt inside him for enjoying these while Melissa was alone and only had rations to rely on. The feeling was nowhere near pronounced enough for him to actually feel bad enough to stop.
Finally, the young man was done as Liam finished his third drink. He waved Liam to come and take his payment. The coin pouches landed on the countertop one by one with a thud, then another, and then a third one.
“Given you have brought so many cores of hollowlings and some verdant spider cores, I’m guessing it won’t take you too long to get to the boss floor. I’ll level with you, I could use actually having my first contracted adventurer. You are rising fast, and it seems like you’ll keep going. I believe Lana made the same offer to you before she passed, so you have an idea of what the benefits are. You don’t have to give me an answer right away, but at least discuss it with the pretty healer who was with you and actually consider it, please.”
Liam had to think for a few minutes about who Lana even was to remember her. Then it clicked. That was the woman whose death he’d been accused of being responsible for. He then thought about the offer. It made sense to accept, at least to him, but before he could give a definitive yes, he’d need to confer with Melissa, as the lad had said.
“I’ll ask her about it. I don’t really see a reason to say no. I’m assuming since we’d be your first contracts, you’d be even more motivated to take good care of us, and the perks besides that are also pretty good.”
He grabbed the coin pouches as he answered. It was clear from the receptionist’s smile and the eager shine in his eyes that his positive-leaning reply had been a welcome one indeed. Get faster updates on novelping(.)com.
“I’d appreciate that very much, and yes, I’d be rather motivated to make sure you don’t just ditch me for someone else. It’s very much looked down upon if an employee loses their first contracted party.”
Liam didn’t reply this time beyond an understanding nod in acknowledgement of his words before turning around and heading for the door.
Once again he was outside. The afternoon had clearly transitioned into evening, which meant he’d have to wait for tomorrow to get the supplies. He didn’t exactly mind that, as it meant that he had a valid excuse to stay in the familiar inn room. Again, the same small guilt tried to creep into his mind. Yet again, it failed to make any difference when it came to his decision-making. He was by the inn before he’d even realized.
“Oi, Liam! Your time is running out; you’ll either have to pay to extend your stay, or you’ll need to pack in three nights.”
He approached the innkeeper, a man whose age was about twice his, by his admittedly very rough estimate. He had completely forgotten about the limited time he had in his room; he’d had the room for too long to actually remember about the booking.
“Right! I’ll book it for another month then if that’s alright for you, Zack.”
Zack’s eyes widened.
“I take it that adventuring is going well then.”
The surprise in the man’s face and tone both somehow stung and felt good. The fact that he’d outdone expectations was very satisfying, but him not doing well being the expectation by default was very much bothering him.
“Yeah, it definitely pays better than the odd jobs around the city.”
He took out the amount of coins he knew the room would cost to book for a month and put them down before Zack even gave him a number. He’d been staying here for months now; he had a good idea of how much it cost per day and, by extension, a month.
The innkeeper didn’t waste any time and pocketed the money.
“That’s good, man; you’re a good customer. You don’t cause trouble, unlike some other colleagues of yours. I’d prefer to keep you over a decent amount of them, so do me a favour and keep doing good.”
As if I needed his input to get motivated to keep going. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
He kept his thoughts to himself; there was no real benefit to antagonise the man after all. He was a paying customer, but he was still a customer renting a room, and he had no intention of tempting fate and risking getting kicked out.
He headed towards his room upstairs. He wanted to spend the night trying to see if he could actually manipulate his mana. That kind of endeavour needed isolation and focus, which he couldn’t really get anywhere but his room at the moment.
He closed the door behind him, heading for the bed as he tossed away his shirt. He caught his reflection in the mirror out of the corner of his eye. He stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes were wide as he stared at the reflection.
Is it just me, or have my muscles grown?
His abs certainly looked more pronounced, at least he thought they did. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but he was all but convinced. He didn’t dwell on it much. It’s not like his physique maybe improving was a reason to panic.
That’s a problem for another time. I have more important things to deal with right now.
He settled onto his bed, taking the meditative posture they were taught in the academy. He closed his eyes and started to take slow, deep breaths. He tried to find his mana, something he wasn’t exactly sure how to do, as he hadn’t been taught beyond theory due to his previous limitations.
It took him what felt like hours to consider giving up.
No! I’m not giving up on this. Not until the morning light forces me to.
He stubbornly kept pushing. Finally, he felt it: a small, fragile flickering of something that hadn’t been there before in his entire life. He tried to move it. He failed. Still, there was a smile on his face. He had mana, and he wasn’t about to stop trying to use it. He’d wished to have mana for as long as he knew about it; he’d learn how to use it even if he had to smash his head into a proverbial wall to do so.
The morning light filtered through the window, hitting his eyelids. He hadn’t slept at all. It was completely worth it; he’d managed to actually move it through some of the mana channels that had been dormant since his birth. He got off the bed with a determined, albeit tired look in his eyes; he was looking forward to going back to the dungeon. All he had to do now was finish buying the things he’d promised Melissa.
Just a small delay before I get to test this out in combat.